Rich Hanson called the meeting to order at 8:00 am stating that there were a few updates to the agenda and additional guests that he will introduce. Went on to say, that his goal was to get through the agenda by 3pm or earlier in an effort to spend some time on brainstorming/planning. He stated we know we still have some critical issues with Congress and state legislators also where are we going to take this organization in the future. President Hanson then proceeded with introductions. He introduced the guest Steve Colligan appointed representative from Alaska to the legislative task force, Jim Campbell Aero News Network, Jerry Neuberger, chairman of the Hall of Fame committee and Tulinda Larsen, Worldtek representing the Utah Drone Festival.

Recognize the Final Flight List with additions with a moment of silence

Consent Agenda (Appendix) It was moved, seconded and approved by unanimous acclamation to accept the minutes of the November 9, 2017 Executive Council meeting.

President’s report will be short this time since he has just taken over the office. He is honored to be elected and working with such strong leadership. He is hoping that during his tenure meeting will become more productive and more information available. Review of the 2017 EC meeting dates: January 9th, Ontario, CA; April 1-2, Muncie, IN; July 15-16, Muncie, IN and October 28-29 Muncie, IN; and designated that the official membership meeting with be held at Joe Nall, Thursday, May 18, 2017. Rich also indicated that we would use Robert’s Rules of Order to run the executive council meetings.

Recommended that Eric Williams (II) be chairman of the nominating committee for 2017.

4. Executive Vice President's Report

Gary congratulated Rich on the election results and was looking forward to working with him and the rest of the Executive Council.

It has been a rather quiet two months, with three major holidays, since we last met.
11/10/16 had a call with newly elected AMA President Rich Hanson to discuss current AMA topics and welcome him back to the EC.
11/26/16 attended an annual hobby shop event with Eric Williams in Syracuse, NY.
12/21/16 participated in an EC Expense Review Committee conference call, results will be presented later in the meeting. Had a discussion with AMA staff on year to date memberships.
12/27/16 discussed with Rich the committees currently on file, requested information on the direction the new president would like to see the committees head. Offered assistance to help with guidance to the committees. Assigned to review the committees and their missions and what has been done in the last five years. Gathered data for later review.
Continued communicate with the Executive Director to stay informed on membership, government affairs, overall updates on HQ activities.
Thanked the AMA Staff and Laura Knowlton for the excellent work they did in promoting AMA West and East shows.
Looking forward to the new year and working with Rich Hanson and the Council for the desire to move our organization forward.
President Hanson ask G. Fitch to oversee the committees, the process, their effectiveness, and explore ways to keep them engaged and reports to be in a timely fashion.

5. Chief Financial Officer's Report

Year-end financials should be available shortly and will be placed in Dropbox. Need to review the effects of anniversary membership income has on the budget. District VII has requested a 10% increase to his district budget. District VII reasoning is the fact that he has to go through several states not in his district to get to the other side of Michigan. After discussion, this was referred back to committee to review the increase requested, look at the other districts that have requested the same in the past and see if other adjustments are needed. Referred back to committee.

7. NAA Report

President Rich Hanson welcomed NAA President and CEO Greg Principato to the Executive Council.

Greg stated that three weeks after taking office he was at the November AMA Executive Council (EC) meeting in Muncie, Indiana. He has been on three trips, two of which involved AMA. Greg gave a brief history of his background for the new EC members (his complete history is in the November 2016 minutes), stating that this was the third aviation association he has been in charge of.

One of the first items he addressed when taking over was to call and talk with members of the board to get an idea about what they expected out of NAA. Gregg’s goal to is bring NAA back in line, tighten up the reins, define criteria for awards such as the Collier Trophy, and review the governance policies and procedures. He expressed that AMA policies and procedures are well defined and followed.

He is pleased to announce that Rich Hanson will serve on the NAA board. Greg also commended Rich on his current and previous work in DC. Greg’s goal for NAA are to update the member value proposition and go back to why NAA was formed in 1905. In one area that NAA can help organizations is through its luncheon series, which has been underutilized in the past. He plans to dedicate one luncheon in 2017 to focus on AMA, likely in June or July. He will be working with AMA to get more details as to what message needs to go out and wants to provide the platform for us to get the word out by inviting the right guests.

In the future he would like to see the NAA board meeting or some other type of NAA-sponsored event be held at the Muncie facilities.

Greg also mentioned that there was interest in having representatives of all of the sport aviation groups meet and discuss issues each organization and what they can do to help one another. One of his goals is to understand the relationships between the organizations and see if we can get back on a reasonable track. He needs a better understanding of FAI and all of the air sport groups.

He plans to attend various meetings to help accomplish this task. He also commented that this was his first at the AMA Expo and he was very impressed with the passion the people have exhibited.

There were housekeeping items that needed to be dealt with at this meeting. Mathewson handed out the district asset form; conflict of interest and the whistle blower policy. All EC members were requested to review, sign and return. Went over the list of two replacement individuals for each district as per policy. Updated that have been overlooked in the past. Ask that all EC members turn in an asset form as soon as possible.

Tony Stillman gave a brief report on the Event Manager and the progress of the programming for this project--launch date is January 16th.

Presented to Council the possibility of adjusting the cost for an AMA life membership. Mathewson will present additional information at the next meeting.

Aero News Network Jim Campbell Founder of Aero News Network and a strong advocate for the Academy spoke to the Executive Council. Stated that he was happy to be in Ontario. He just attended the CTS in Law Vegas where approximately there were 161 drone vendors. Tremendous activity in this area.

7. Committee Reports

AMA Model Aviation Hall of Fame
Jerry Neuberger gave a brief overview of the Hall of Fame program and the committee’s work. Passed out a voter sheet indicating what districts have representation, and what districts had representation but didn’t vote. Typically, there are ten individuals inducted into the Hall of Fame each year, and discussed the current process. Neuberger felt that the guidelines for the HOF need additional work, and that it’s imperative that each district representative vote. It was recommended that the HOF mission statement be sent back to the committee to develop a better purpose statement. Requested that each vice president insure that each district has committee representation and that this representation should be a Leader Member.

1. Affinity Program:
Tim Jesky gave an update on our partnership with Best Buy. This program has generated in excess of $88,000 in revenue for 20l16. Jesky felt that this was a good partnership and thought that it was an opening for other partnerships with other merchandisers. Still seeing income from the gifts cards. Updated report to be presented at the April meeting.

2. Foundation
Discussion concerning the make-up and direction of the foundation indicated that there has not a lot of forward movement. Donations through the membership application has continued to bring in funds. In order for the foundation to move forward a long term strategic plan needs to be created.

Tony presented a conceptual drawing of an Indoor site to be developed in Muncie along with some rough figures and a time needed to accomplish this task. This would be a good capital campaign for the foundation with a 5- 6 year goal to acquire the funding needed to complete this project. Discussion regarding regional sites, good project for the foundation or not. L. Tougas was concerned about “all the money” being put in one location (Muncie) and he still supports regional sites. Tony with the assistance of the PADCOM committee to develop the indoor concept further and present at the July meeting.

Utah Drone Festival (see appendix)

Rich Hanson introduced Tulinda Larsen who represented WORLDTEK Events. Tulinda presented to the executive council an upcoming drone event to be held August 23-26, Salt Lake City, Utah. She expressed that there would be a lot of activities at this event and was interested in the Academy participating with Worldtek and what Worldtek would expect from AMA. See appendix.

Motion II: Moved by L. Tougas (X), and seconded by T. Jesky (VII) to support the Utah Drone Festival (August 23-26) in the manner as presented in the handout (see appendix).Motion passed unanimously.

Jim Tiller presented the proposed travel and expense policy for the Executive Council members.

Some council members felt that the policy being presented was not given enough time for members to review and have questions. It was suggested that the T & E policy be placed in Dropbox and discussion could start there.

Motion III: Moved by L. Tougas (X), and second by J. Marsh (IV) to refer the travel and entertainment policy back to the entire Executive Council, with Keith Sessions as the chairman, for review to be presented at the April Executive Council meeting. Motion passed: 8 yes, 5 no III, VI, VII, IX, XI

AMS withdrawn.

Committees: (see appendix)

Gary Fitch was assigned the task of reviewing committee lists, their chairmen, and the purpose of the committee. After calling out the existing committees, seeing which ones were active and were ones needed to be dissolved, Gary requested from the council members to send him a note indicating which committees they would like to service on. Updated version will be presented later.

AWARDS

To be announced later.

After the regular executive council session ending, Rich requested that the council stay for a few hours and hash over SLRP, do some free thinking. It is planned that this process will begin again and how important SLRP is to the organization. Suggested AMA needs to find a new facilitator, maybe someone from Ball State to help in our efforts for the April meeting